DOI Heft:
No. 376 (July 1924)
DOI Artikel:Armfield, Maxwell: Crafts and design
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21400#0030
CRAFTS AND DESIGN. BY MAXWELL ARMFIELD
EMBROIDERY IN TAPESTRY
STITCH BY MAXWELL ARMFIELD
material for representing the smaller
detail. 000000
Every material is sufficient for the ex-
pression of a certain range of ideas which
cannot be combined in just that way in any
other medium. The qualities inherent in
the iron grille are exactly as valuable in
their place as those characteristic of oil
paint on canvas, though one may not be
able to convey anything so important or
subtle in iron. 00000
The extent to which a medium may be
legitimately stretched is a very open one,
and is better avoided. The true craftsman
will tend rather to increase the number of
defined materials than to attempt to strain
the bounds of any. One feels that the
enforced imitation of brush-drawing in
many Japanese woodcuts detracts from the
purely craftsmanlike character of the work,
a phase of it which has not been copied by
the block-print makers of Europe. These on
the other hand, attempt an atmospheric
range of ideas, as a rule, which seems to
sacrifice most of the exquisite colour—
beauty of the craft. The theory of art
training which insists on the learning of the
actual mechanics of the craft by the child
or student would at least render such mis-
takes of judgment unlikely. The familiaris-
ing of oneself with various crafts implies
the acquaintance too with many different
attitudes of mind towards the natural
forms used as symbols and with traditional
abstract patterns, which, in the absence of
10
any continuous European tradition, is of
great value. 0000a
In preceding ages the student or
apprentice was, of course, kept rigidly to a
basic demand springing from religious or
social usage, which was often dictated or at
least moulded by some characteristic of
the local milieu in which he worked ; for
he was always craftsman first, and often
he was " artist " at all only to succeeding
generations who had lost the true point of
view of his work. Thus the Japanese
expressed himself naturally on paper with
rice-starch, and the Greek on clay with
stylus or brush ; the Flamand with damp-
resisting oil on wood and so forth. 0
These facts influenced their ideas about
their work as well as the character of their
production, so that there is unity between
the ideas and the method of expressing
them, a unity that cannot be otherwise
acquired. 00000
Since the traditional craftsman, produc-
ing the necessities of life as beautifully
as might be, has been superseded by the
mechanic producing objects which will pay
his employer best to produce—the majority
of which are not " useful " in the fullest
sense—the question of craftsmanship has
been to a great extent shelved even by
painters, and the artist as well as the artisan
tends to become further and further
removed from considerations of material.
And therefore of design, for the life of
WOOD CARVING BY
MAXWELL ARMFIELD
EMBROIDERY IN TAPESTRY
STITCH BY MAXWELL ARMFIELD
material for representing the smaller
detail. 000000
Every material is sufficient for the ex-
pression of a certain range of ideas which
cannot be combined in just that way in any
other medium. The qualities inherent in
the iron grille are exactly as valuable in
their place as those characteristic of oil
paint on canvas, though one may not be
able to convey anything so important or
subtle in iron. 00000
The extent to which a medium may be
legitimately stretched is a very open one,
and is better avoided. The true craftsman
will tend rather to increase the number of
defined materials than to attempt to strain
the bounds of any. One feels that the
enforced imitation of brush-drawing in
many Japanese woodcuts detracts from the
purely craftsmanlike character of the work,
a phase of it which has not been copied by
the block-print makers of Europe. These on
the other hand, attempt an atmospheric
range of ideas, as a rule, which seems to
sacrifice most of the exquisite colour—
beauty of the craft. The theory of art
training which insists on the learning of the
actual mechanics of the craft by the child
or student would at least render such mis-
takes of judgment unlikely. The familiaris-
ing of oneself with various crafts implies
the acquaintance too with many different
attitudes of mind towards the natural
forms used as symbols and with traditional
abstract patterns, which, in the absence of
10
any continuous European tradition, is of
great value. 0000a
In preceding ages the student or
apprentice was, of course, kept rigidly to a
basic demand springing from religious or
social usage, which was often dictated or at
least moulded by some characteristic of
the local milieu in which he worked ; for
he was always craftsman first, and often
he was " artist " at all only to succeeding
generations who had lost the true point of
view of his work. Thus the Japanese
expressed himself naturally on paper with
rice-starch, and the Greek on clay with
stylus or brush ; the Flamand with damp-
resisting oil on wood and so forth. 0
These facts influenced their ideas about
their work as well as the character of their
production, so that there is unity between
the ideas and the method of expressing
them, a unity that cannot be otherwise
acquired. 00000
Since the traditional craftsman, produc-
ing the necessities of life as beautifully
as might be, has been superseded by the
mechanic producing objects which will pay
his employer best to produce—the majority
of which are not " useful " in the fullest
sense—the question of craftsmanship has
been to a great extent shelved even by
painters, and the artist as well as the artisan
tends to become further and further
removed from considerations of material.
And therefore of design, for the life of
WOOD CARVING BY
MAXWELL ARMFIELD